Saturday, September 25, 2010

Let the fun begin! The 2010 haunt season has begun and we are off and running as well. On 9/24 we attended Folklore Haunted House in Dallas, GA. Less than 30 minutes from Six Flags this haunt is in it's first year. There has to be some leniency given to those that are just getting started, but even with that being said they have done a spectacular job.

We begin by pointed out some of the things you may need to know when going to Folklore. The ticket window requires you to walk around the side of the building to an old pharmacy drive-thru window and then all of the way back to the front to the entrance. There are scare actors in the parking lot, but don't let that stop you from getting out of your car! That's actually a really good thing. You'll also want to be careful if you are using a GPS system to locate the site. Our Tom Tom told us we still had over a mile to go when we noticed it sitting off on a hill partially obscured by other buildings. You don't want to miss it, so keep and eye out.

Now for the good and the bad of it all.

Folklore Haunted House has three managers and two acting managers. We had the opportunity to speak to one of each while we were there. This group is very interested in telling you their stories and finding out your opinions of their attraction. The hospitality there was a huge plus. When we went to pick up our tickets we were given a rubber bracelet as a keepsake. We hope that they will find a way to do something with this in the future (such as a different colored band each year and a discounted admission if you wear the one from the previous year - a loyalty reward!).

The theming through the haunt is very well planned out and sticks to the storyline much better than expected for a haunt of this size. There are large animatronics as well as larger than average set pieces that capture your attention. The management admits that there are things they want to continue to expand on and work on over time, but that's reasonable since you would have to be very wealthy to put together a haunt in one year that didn't need some continued improvement.

The actors are still being groomed toward being the best that they can be. There are plenty of talented screamers among the group, but the manager assures us that they will be discovering that there is more to the scare than the scream as they work through the season. Among the actors are many different age ranges, including several highly talented child actors. These children were, on occasion, actually better actors than the adults. This was quite impressive.

Some of the actors and other staff at Folklore have prior experience working at Creepers Haunted House, which was a favorite of ours several years ago. The staff were able to tell us that Creepers closed for a season due to the owners expanding family (congratulations!), but hasn't been able to be in exactly the right place to reopen again just yet. We wish them much luck with getting back into the haunt world and know that the staff that went over to Folklore is doing them proud.

We highly recommend Folklore to anyone looking for a fun and frightful evening. On our scale of 1-5 severed heads we give them a solid 4 severed heads. Congratulations on a job well done and keep up the progress.